Rewards for Justice is offering a reward of up to $5 million for information on Ahlam Ahmad al-Tamimi, also known as “Khalti” and “Halati,” as part of its 1993 Violence in Opposition to the Middle East Peace Negotiations reward offer.
On August 9, 2001, al-Tamimi transported a bomb and a Hamas suicide bomber to a crowded Jerusalem Sbarro pizzeria, where the bomber detonated the explosives. The blast killed 15 people, including seven children. Americans Judith Shoshana Greenbaum, a pregnant 31-year-old school teacher, and 15-year-old Malka Chana Roth were among those killed. More than 120 others were injured, including four Americans. Hamas claimed responsibility for the bombing.
A former student working as a television journalist, al-Tamimi drove the bomber to the target after pledging to carry out attacks on behalf of Hamas’ military wing, the Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades, according to the FBI. Al-Tamimi, who planned and engineered the Sbarro attack, chose the location because it was a busy restaurant. To reduce suspicion, she and the suicide bomber dressed as Israelis, and she personally transported the bomb, concealed inside a guitar case, from a West Bank town into Jerusalem. Al-Tamimi also admitted to detonating a small improvised explosive device in a Jerusalem grocery store prior to the attack as a test run.
In 2003, al-Tamimi pleaded guilty in an Israeli court to participating in the attack and was sentenced to 16 life terms in Israel for assisting the bomber. She was released in October 2011 as part of a prisoner exchange between Hamas and Israel. On March 14, 2017, the U.S. Department of Justice unsealed a criminal complaint and an arrest warrant for al-Tamimi. The FBI also added al-Tamimi to its Most Wanted Terrorists List.
